While You Were Sleeping
by lunarlychallenged
Summary: A Jily While You Were Sleeping AU. When Lily Evans saves the life of the man she fancies at the Ministry, she doesn't anticipate being mistaken for his fiancee. Nor does she anticipate falling in love with his best friend instead.
1. Chapter 1

Hey! This is my first multichapter, so forgive my inexperience in updating and the like. I do hope you enjoy!

Lily Evans had been in love with James Dean for a little over a year now. Okay, not in love. You can't be in love with somebody you hardly know, right? She fancied him. She was mad about him. Okay, and he wasn't James Dean, either. There was an uncanny resemblance, though. Other than the too long hair, he could easily have passed for the muggle's twin.

Lily had worked at the Ministry of Magic for 3 years now. She had joined with big dreams of changing the wizarding world, but had fallen into a sort of routine of boredom. _Everybody starts out in a division they hate, Lily. They get transferred somewhere better if they do good work. You do the best work, so you'll be fine._ Lily had been doing _good work_ for ages, but she had never been transferred. So she went to work everyday, drowning in her inability to change the world she had so desperately longed to be a part of. She had nearly given up her career in favor of quitting to become a muggle magician when she saw the handsome man.

She regulated the Floo network, and people watching had become her only solace in the monotony. She would sit in her subpar chair, eat a subpar bagel, and settle in for a day of observing the Wizarding World's Finest as they began or ended their work day. It had been a Monday, and she would always recall the way her heart skipped a beat when he went through her Floo entrance. His cheekbones cut like glass. His hair was shining like obsidian. He had a jawline for days. He was absolutely beautiful, and her heart stuttered when she saw him. He didn't see her, of course, but that day started a flurry of constant fantasies in which they met, married, and created 4 billion perfect babies. As unlikely as the dreams were, they kept her sane for a year.

It was Christmas season, and Lily was miserable. She was always miserable during the holidays, since she was utterly alone and nobody else was. The imminent threat of working on Christmas day was unavoidable for someone so kind as Lily. She could hardly bear to allow somebody else to leave their family on such a special day, so she always worked on a day that she would rather wallow in her own misery and loneliness. It was harder to wallow when she was in such a public place. Really, the only reason she could stand to come to work was the knowledge that _he_ would be there.

As she slathered a healthy amount of strawberry cream cheese on her bagel, she eagerly watched for her James Dean to come through the Floo. He came very early in the morning, so she never worried about anybody else blocking her view. She saw his lovely hair appear, and let out a pterodactyl screech of delight. Her boss, Moody, shot her a look of disgust and amusement that she had long since learned to ignore. Lily unabashedly stared at the infatuation of her youth as he strode across the floor. He was nearly out of her view when two middle aged men in masks approached her man. Quick words were exchanged, a parcel was shoved into James Dean's hands, and he collapsed. The two men apparated away, and Lily dropped her bagel. She stared at him lying there, stared at the workers just walking around him, and stared at the package he gripped.

Nearly without thinking, she spun to apparate. The disorientation did nothing to her as she knelt next to him, calling for help.

Lily sprinted through various doors in St. Mungos as she rushed to the floor for Spell Damage. She wasn't sure that it was the correct floor, but it was the best guess she had, and she needed to find the man. _The man she had_ saved, she thought to herself. She had needed to stay at work for the past hour to report the incident, and she had been mad with worry as she waited to meet him at last. While it wasn't exactly the love story beginning she had hoped for, she figured it wouldn't matter. It was as good a way as any, all things considered. She rushed to the desk.

"I'm here to see a man that was just brought in. He's fit, he's got dark hair-" Lily's urgent plea was cut off by the nurse's dreamy sigh.

"Oh yes, I did see him. He's absolutely yummy, isn't he?" Lily's bewildered look must have snapped the woman out of her reverie, since her next comment started the most outrageous series of events in the young woman's life. "Are you family?"

"Ah, no, but I'm-"

"Then you can't go back, dear." The nurse turned away from her, and Lily stepped back with a sigh.

"I was going to marry him." Lily's soft statement caught the woman's attention.

"Oh! You're his fiancee? That changes things! I'll take you to his room. He hasn't woken up yet, but I'm sure it would do him good to have you nearby." Lily started to correct the woman, but paused. This was it. She had been watching the man for a year, and this was the one chance she had been given to finally meet him. One chance. For all she knew, this would be it. If she didn't let this woman believe, just for a second, that Lily was his lover, she may never get the opportunity to make it really happen. It was just one woman, after all. Perhaps the lie wouldn't really matter.

Lily followed the nurse to the room. _One lie isn't a big deal. And who knows, it may not even be a lie for long._ Lily comforted herself with dreams of love at first sight, a fast connection, and an even faster engagement. As she approached the door, the nurse gave her a reassuring grin. Lily returned a shaky smile, and closed her eyes. _This is it. The beginning of a fairy tale._ She took a deep breath before entering, and pushed the door open.

While the gasp she gave at the sight of several figures already there was justified, she regretted it when they simultaneously turned around.


	2. Chapter 2

Lily slapped her hand over her mouth at the sharp inhale she gave, but the 3 men who had beaten her to the room were already looking at her in surprise and confusion.

The men appeared to all be about her age, and she was suddenly overwhelmingly aware of the fact that _she knew none of them_. This was far more than one person to lie to, and the trio very clearly were thinking along the same line.

A rather ragged looking brunet finally broke the newborn tension that filled the already solemn room. "Who is this?"

The nurse gaped at him for a moment before answering. "This is the fiancee."

Another man, this one with outrageously disheveled black hair and rectangular spectacles, gaped at her. "What _fiancee_? Sirius isn't _engaged_." He tugged at the tips of his hair, and he let out a breathy laugh. Lily rather liked his laugh. It was loud and genuine, even in his distressed state. Her momentary fondness toward this new man vanished as soon as he uttered his next sentence. "Besides, this girl isn't his type. He never has relationships longer than a month, but _she_ would be nothing more than one of his one night stands."

" _James_." The last person in the room chided him gently. This man looked hardly more than a boy, with his soft stature and watery eyes. "You haven't talked to Sirius in months. You wouldn't know if he settled down with a girl. You wouldn't even know what type of girl he wants to settle down with." The man looked at her with a slight smile. "I apologize, it's been awhile since we've properly spoken to Sirius. We had a bit of a row a while back, and we haven't concluded it yet. What's your name?"

"Lily. I'm Lily Evans. Who are you?"

The brunet spoke up again, and she couldn't shake the feeling that he could see right through her. "Remus Lupin. We are Sirius' best ma- _brothers_ , though I can't say we've done a great job at it lately. Peter is the nice one over there, and James is the prat. It really is nice to meet you."

The nurse gave a relieved smile. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought for a moment that I had utterly mucked this all up. I probably would have lost my job if I had brought back somebody with _no_ connection to Mr. Black." Lily gave a rigid laugh. Well, this most certainly sealed the deal. She could not tell these boys who she was until after they left the hospital. The nurse left the room, and Lily was finally able to turn to her James Dean. _Sirius._ What a perfect name for a perfect boy. She walked slowly over to his bedside and ran her fingers gently through his dark hair. She had longed to do so for months, and it was every bit as soft as she had imagined. She memorized the plains of his face, up close for the first time.

Remus cleared his throat, but she cut him off before he could ask her any questions.

"What's the matter with him? When will he wake up?" She would have to tell them about the slight misunderstanding before Sirius could tell them himself. Or maybe just run away before they could figure it out themselves.

"Whatever those wankers shoved at him has some curse on it. Nobody has figured out what it was, or how to break it. He's just… sleeping." Remus looked stricken by grief for just a moment, but cleared his face when he saw the mirrored looks on his friends. Lily sat next to the bed, looking at Sirius with a face hopefully full of love and pain. As a girl who had never been in love before, she had no clue how to morph her face into something with so much _feeling_. She silently prayed that she looked lovestruck rather than constipated or in pain.

"So how did you meet Sirius?" James' words were clipped, and his eyes were narrowed beneath his frames.

Lily's mind was racing, and she was proud of her casual reply. "We met at the Ministry of Magic. We went through the Floo at about the same, and our eyes met as we exited. It was love at first sight." James snorted, and she continued quickly. "Well, more like lust. The love came later, when he asked me out again after we went at it. I know that the engagement was rather fast, but we figured there was no point in waiting. Sirius tends to act based on feeling, as I'm sure you know." Lily knew that it was a gamble to make such an assumption, but a flicker of longing brightened James' eyes.

"Yeah, he does. It's always been one of his best qualities. And his worst, at times." A heavy silence settled over the three men. Lily sat uncomfortably for as long as she could before she desperately grasped blindly at something to break the deafening quiet.

"He never really mentioned you. What did you argue about?" James' face shut down and the walls flew back up, and Lily shrank back ever so slightly. Much to her relief, Peter seemed to see her fear and leapt to her rescue.

"He acted based on feeling. As great as that can be, he really messed up this time. He wouldn't apologize, so we wouldn't forgive him. That's all."

"So you were close?"

Remus gave a humorless laugh. "Oh, yes. We have been best friends forever. We told the nurse we were his brothers, so don't tell her otherwise. No need to get anybody in trouble, yeah? Besides, it's basically true. We are the closest thing to family Sirius has." Remus paused, and gave her a look that seemed almost grateful. "Well, we were until now. Thank you for keeping an eye on him while we couldn't. It'll be nice to have somebody else to keep him under control, once he wakes up." Another hush fell as they all picked up on the unmentioned undertone: _if_ he wakes up.


	3. Chapter 3

Lily staggered up the stairs to her apartment building, praying for empty halls and a quiet evening. Just as she pushed her key into the lock, she heard a door down the corridor open, accompanied by a joyous bellow.

"Lils!" She pressed her head against her door for one, two, three beats before plastering on a fake smile and turning.

"Benji." Her response, while unenthusiastic, brought a broad grin to Benji Fenwick's handsome face.

"I, my dear Lily, have tickets to see the Weird Sisters this Friday night. One of them is yours, if you want it."

"What would this be?" Lily sighed, already knowing the answer, but rather hoping that it would change.

"A date. Who takes a friend to the Weird Sisters? Besides, you can't be busy _again_."

Lily paused for a second, putting on a thoughtful face for a moment. With each second that passed, Benji's face brightened exponentially. She finally inhaled, smacked her forehead, and exclaimed, "I don't think I can. I have to work Friday." That much was true, though she would surely be out in time for a concert. She just wouldn't be ready to stoop to such a level as to date her sleazy, flirtatious neighbor until she was an old maid who was desperate for love. Perhaps not even then.

His face fell, and she turned to enter her apartment. He called after her, "I'll come by at 8, anyhow. If you aren't back in time for the concert, we can just hang. Nobody should be alone at Christmas. It's a date!" She had hoped to close the door fast enough to miss the last bit, but she knew that he would inevitably come by her place. Maybe she should splurge and eat out that night…

Lily walked through her cramped, quiet flat to get to the kitchen. She made little cooing sounds as she filled a bowl with cat food, hoping that her cat would keep her company for the evening. "Daisy… sweet kitty… dinner time..." She wandered through the rooms, praying for her fluffy companion to appear. After a few minutes, she put the bowl on the floor and wandered back to the kitchen.

As Lily made her own dinner, she tried to ignore the echos of Benji's comment. _Nobody should be alone at Christmas._ Lily had thought the same thing ever since her parents had died, but it seemed less pathetic when it was only said inside of her own head. When Benji was criticizing her hermit lifestyle, something needed to change. The trouble was, Lily had nobody to talk to.

 _Well, that isn't totally true…._

Lily trotted through the halls at St. Mungos once again. She shoved down the odd feeling that she got from returning to visit the stranger who she was pretending to be in love with, but figured she would have to explain everything to him eventually. They say that coma patients can hear stuff, right? This totally counts as a conversation, one sided though it may be.

She slowed down to a tiptoe as she neared the room, praying her assumption that it was empty would be proven true. She carefully peered around the corner of the doorway, and gave an audible sigh of relief when the only inhabitant was her James Dean.

As Lily walked to the foot of his bed, she was floored not only by how handsome he was, but how young he looked when he was asleep. He was normally so charming looking, and the he was a very different kind of appealing now. She wondered if everyone looked that way when they slept. She herself had never had anybody to ask, since she had never slept with anybody. Pathetic, sure, but Lily just hoped that it would seem romantic to her future husband instead of lonely.

 _Speaking of future husband…_

Lily cleared her throat, praying both that he could hear her and that he would not remember how awkward this was when he woke up.

"Sirius, hi, this is Lily. Lily Evans. I, um, I'm awfully sorry about all of this. I guess everyone thinks that I'm your fiancee. I've never been anybody's fiancee before." Lily gave an anxious smile, forgetting for a moment that he could give no response. She searched for something more to say, finally settling on another apology.

"I really am sorry about this whole ordeal. This wasn't supposed to happen, you just got hurt and everything happened so fast… Not that I'm blaming you. Merlin, I'm terrible at this." Lily lowered herself into a seat next to him. "It's just, I pictured meeting my fiancee's family a bit differently, you know? I thought that I would have this great job, and a great home, and lots of friends. I thought that I would actually be in a relationship with the guy. I thought I would have a family for him to meet, too.

"Well, Sirius, even if you wanted to, I don't think I'd have anybody to introduce you to. I doubt Tuney would want to meet you. I mean, I like my life," she hurried to say. She didn't want him to think she was some loser, or some sad young woman who relieved her loneliness by pushing herself upon coma patients.

"I have an apartment. And a cat. I have an okay job. I mean, I'm a witch, so that's cool. I just always thought that I would have somebody to share this all with.

"Do you believe in love at first sight? Probably not. You've probably never had to, looking like that. I'll bet every girl has wanted to get with you, so you never needed silly fantasies. I guess I do. But it's just, I just really think that if somebody could just get to know me, and really see me, maybe it could be alright. Maybe he'd see, even just for a second, that I am the sort of girl he could spend a lifetime with. Somebody he could have that old person on the porch swing thing with. But he'd have to be that right guy. I thought maybe that guy could be you, but this is probably the universe interceding before you could even see me at all." Lily gave a bitter laugh. Once again, all of this sounded much less pitiful in her head. But she had wanted him to really know her, and this was her one chance to let a man see her without having to see his face when the interest faded away. Goodness, that would be mortifying.

"Have you ever fallen in love with somebody you've never even talked to?" Lily felt her chest tighten, and finally felt tears prickle in her eyes. Merlin, had she always been this pathetic? Did anyone else in the world ever have to stoop this low to have company around the holidays? Surely not. "Have you ever been so lonely that you pretended to have a relationship with a stranger in a coma?"

Lily laid her head down on his bed, making sure not to touch him. Even her probably perverted self needed to have some boundaries.

If she had turned around at that moment, she would have seen a very conflicted, sad looking Remus Lupin standing in the doorway of the hospital room. She would have seen him look back and forth between her body and his friend's before turning around to exit the room.


	4. Chapter 4

A very drowsy Lily Evans woke because of footsteps. She burrowed her face farther into her arms, taking mental stock of what felt wrong. First of all, she was sitting. Where had she fallen asleep? She didn't fall asleep at her kitchen table, and there was nowhere to rest her head on the livingroom chairs. And her cat didn't step nearly so heavily, so that wouldn't explain those footsteps…

Her heart sped up as she tried to think who's feet she could hear, but after a few seconds the smell of the room broke through the barrier her arms had created. _Antiseptic._

She shot to her feet, only to have to sit back in her chair as her vision clouded. _Don't stand up so fast,_ she chided herself. _As safe a place to faint as this would be, you have places to be_. She checked the clock hanging on the wall and choked slightly at the time. She, the foolish girl that she was, now had 2 minutes to get home, ready for work, and to the Ministry.

Lily quickly gathered her things and trotted to the doorway, only to find it obscured by a very surprised James and Peter. James looked at her with mild annoyance, but Peter grinned at her.

"Evans! We didn't know you would be here. It's awfully early." He smiled at her for a moment longer, before taking in her bedraggled appearance. "You didn't… did you sleep here?"

She rubbed a hand over her unruly hair sheepishly. "Ah, yeah, I came to talk to him and just, fell asleep."

"Do you want to get breakfast with us? We were going to stop by the cafeteria before going to work."

"Oh, no, that's fine, I'm about to be late for work as is-"

Peter gave a gasp of inspiration. "You should have Christmas with us!" Lily and James both gaped at him, the former with speechlessness and the latter with alarm.

James spoke up in a hurry, much to Lily's relief. "Peter, Lily has probably got family of her own to have Christmas with. Besides, we oughtn't invite people to my parent's place without talking to them first."

"James, this is Sirius' _fiancee_. You know they would want to meet her. Especially since she saved his life."

Both boys looked at her with expectation, each sure that she would side with him. She cleared her throat awkwardly, uncertain what the correct answer was.

"Well, um, I don't have any plans for Christmas at the mo'," she paused when Peter made a triumphant sound, and winced when James shot her a look of irritation. "But, well, I probably have to work that day. Gotta give the people with families a chance to holiday, right?"

James gave Peter a victorious look, but made disappointed sounds at her. "Oh, that's too bad, Lily. My parents will be so sad."

Peter stepped toward the nightstand to scribble on a piece of paper. "Well, if you find out you can come after all, here's the address. Do feel free, Evans. Once you marry Sirius, you will be a part of our family. Might as well start now, yeah?"

Lily trudged into work a half hour late, and Moody shot her a look. "You know, Miss Evans, I'll let this slide today, since you've earned a reprieve after your heroics yesterday, but don't you try this again. After that disaster yesterday, we need constant vigilance." He paused for a minute, and Lily lamented the lack of her usual bagel. "How are you holding up, Lily? I know that yesterday was stressful." He sounded slightly pitying, and something about the tone inspired a bolt of anger within her.

"Oh, I'm just _splendid._ My dream husband is in a coma, everyone thinks that I'm his fiancee, and now his family wants me to meet them for Christmas dinner. Happy holidays, indeed." Her voice had spiralled from sarcasm to hysteria, and Moody's eyebrows shot up.

" _Why_ would they think that you are engaged?" Lily miserably explained the previous day's events, omitting nothing. She told him about the nurse's misunderstanding, the audacity of James Potter, and her overnight at the hospital. Her heart filled with something painful when she told him about her invitation, and she chalked it up to the fact that it had been several years since she had had a proper Christmas dinner. Sure, she was being invited because of a misunderstanding, but she almost wished that the lie was true.

He scoffed at her story, and gave her advice that she gaped at him. "Play along. Come now, Lily, just pretend for a bit. Finding out the truth will do nothing but upset them. Pretend you are the boy's lover, tell them the truth when he wakes up, and they will thank you for keeping up their spirits while they waited. Better yet, run off before they can find out that out you lied. Let the boy tell them himself. You needn't face the consequences."

Lily made a sound of disbelief, but considered the advice. It was Christmas Eve, and she couldn't very well tell his loved ones the truth today, or tomorrow for that matter. _Tell them the truth in a few days. Now is not the time._

Lily went back to the hospital in the evening, carrying a bouquet of cheap, heavily scented poinsettias. She placed them down by Sirius' bedside, and wasn't even surprised when Remus walked in. It seemed to fit the way her day had gone thus far, and she gave him a weak, though sincere, smile.

"Hello, Remus."

He grinned in response, and the sight of his bright teeth made her smile slightly more genuine. At the very least, it came out easier.

"So Pete invited you to Christmas, yeah? You should come." When Lily blinked up at him in silent surprise, he shrugged. "The Potters are good people. They raised James very well, though you haven't exactly gotten to see his good side yet. They have been good to Peter and I, and have been the family that Sirius never had. I know that it's odd to meet the family without the fiance present, but you should still meet them. They have been desperate to meet you since they heard about you. They have missed Sirius terribly since the falling out."

"What was that over, if you don't mind my asking?"

Remus sighed, and she was suddenly struck by how _old_ he seemed. It maybe had something to do with the grey streaks in his hair, and the thin scars that crossed his face. She wondered briefly about those, but decided that she had no right to ask about them. "James and Sirius are the sort of men who make a lot of enemies. They are very charismatic, but admittedly capable of being terrible. Sirius did something… well, he did something to endanger the life of one of those enemies. This man wasn't a _bad_ man, exactly, but he had always stood against James and Sirius. What Sirius did both violated James' moral code and put others' health and safety at risk, but Sirius was unapologetic. When the rest of us refused to let him get away with what he had done, he left. We hadn't seen him since then, at least until this."

Lily swallowed. In every fantasy, she had never given Sirius any attributes like this. Sure, the answer had been vague, but she had imagined him as being gentlemanly and kind. Occasionally reckless, perhaps, but in a purely fun way. Not dangerous.

She finally nodded, and Remus gave her a serious look. "There are no bad feelings between us all right now. The accident killed all of those. But I don't want you doing anything that may bring those hurts back up again, Lily. I don't mean to be unkind, and I know that the Potters will love you, but I need you to really work to keep James from getting angry again. Please try not to bring anything up."

Lily nodded emphatically. "Oh, yes. I don't want to hurt anyone."

Remus peered closely at her face for a moment, and she was taken aback. As earnest as this conversation had been, she felt as though he was _searching_ for something. Or maybe listening for another meaning? Whatever he was looking for, he seemed to find it, as he nodded back at her. He gave her a broad grin before bidding her goodbye.

"I'll see you tomorrow night, Lily. Wear something nice."

Lily smiled uncertainly smiled back, and felt her chest flutter with excitement and dread at the thought of Christmas dinner with the Potters.


End file.
